Karen
Van Wert
May 2011
Karen
Van Wert
,
RN, MSN, NP
NEPHROLOGY
Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Los Angeles
,
CA
United States
Karen Van Wert, RN, MSN, NP (Nephrology) is the winner of The DAISY Award for May at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
In a surprise ceremony on May 5 – surrounded by friends and co-workers – Van Wert accepted her award graciously in the midst of a festive spread of food, beverages and decorations. Van Wert now joins an elite group of nurses whom Mary Dee Hacker, RN, MBA, FAAN (VP, Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer) refers to as “The Who’s Who of Nursing at CHLA.”
A few excerpts from Van Wert’s DAISY Award nomination:
“Karen has been integral over the past 30 years in the development of the kidney transplantation program at CHLA. She has been a total patient advocate from the beginning – creating procedures and policies around the transplant program to make it as respectful of the families and their time as possible, and as failsafe as anything involving human beings can be.
“She has also been vigilant to insure that the program met all standards and requirements of outside agencies to insure that this program would be available to our patients. Two and a half years ago, she began her concentration on pre-transplant activities. On behalf of the living donors she attempted to make their work up as smooth as possible and constantly keeps families informed of their status.
“She comes in at 5:30 a.m. on the day of surgery so the last thing both donor and recipient see is a friendly face. She has also taken on overseeing the patients in both hemodialysis and ID to insure that everything is being done properly to move those patients forward to their ultimate goal – life with a new kidney, un-tethered to a machine.
“Karen is also deeply respectful of both deceased donor families and living donor families. Her depth of knowledge in the area of transplant is amazing and she is a wonderful resource to the community and to other staff.”
In a surprise ceremony on May 5 – surrounded by friends and co-workers – Van Wert accepted her award graciously in the midst of a festive spread of food, beverages and decorations. Van Wert now joins an elite group of nurses whom Mary Dee Hacker, RN, MBA, FAAN (VP, Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer) refers to as “The Who’s Who of Nursing at CHLA.”
A few excerpts from Van Wert’s DAISY Award nomination:
“Karen has been integral over the past 30 years in the development of the kidney transplantation program at CHLA. She has been a total patient advocate from the beginning – creating procedures and policies around the transplant program to make it as respectful of the families and their time as possible, and as failsafe as anything involving human beings can be.
“She has also been vigilant to insure that the program met all standards and requirements of outside agencies to insure that this program would be available to our patients. Two and a half years ago, she began her concentration on pre-transplant activities. On behalf of the living donors she attempted to make their work up as smooth as possible and constantly keeps families informed of their status.
“She comes in at 5:30 a.m. on the day of surgery so the last thing both donor and recipient see is a friendly face. She has also taken on overseeing the patients in both hemodialysis and ID to insure that everything is being done properly to move those patients forward to their ultimate goal – life with a new kidney, un-tethered to a machine.
“Karen is also deeply respectful of both deceased donor families and living donor families. Her depth of knowledge in the area of transplant is amazing and she is a wonderful resource to the community and to other staff.”